In February this year [2010] the London Borough of Hillingdon confirmed that it is to be the first local authority in the country to return housing management back to the council from its arms length management organisation (ALMO), Hillingdon Homes.

The decision, taken by the council’s cabinet, followed the results of an independent opinion survey of residents which showed a large majority of residents were in favour of returning housing management to the council.   Originally, a large majority of residents voted in favour for Hillingdon Homes to be set up in 2003 to manage all the council's tenancies.

The council said that Hillingdon Homes had delivered good service performance and achieved high tenant satisfaction and had secured the Decent Homes standard with £60m funding from Government.   However, with this programme now complete, Hillingdon Council said that returning housing to direct control would save support service and governance costs, enabling it to improve services for tenants.   Hillingdon Homes staff will move to the council and retain their current terms and conditions.

Cllr Philip Corthorne, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Health and Housing, is reported to have said:

"Hillingdon Homes has done a good job of managing the council's tenancies but we have had to look at how we continue to provide good quality, efficient services for residents. Changes in flexibilities and freedoms promised by the Government for ALMOs have not materialised but freedoms around borrowing and new build have been extended to local authorities.”

"We have had to deal with the impact of the economic recession and severely restricted budgets means we cannot justify running a separate company to manage housing when we could do it in-house. This proposal will mean we could cut duplicated costs and instead use the money to improve housing services."

Other ALMOs are also making plans to revert back into direct council ownership and control too.   Hammersmith and Fulham council has announced plans to take its arm’s-length management organisation back in-house.   The board of Hammersmith and Fulham homes has launched a consultation with tenants on closing the ALMO and returning housing management services to the council from March 2011.

The council hopes to save more than £400,000 by shutting the ALMO now that its £230 million Decent Homes programme is complete.

Harry Audley, chair of Hammersmith and Fulham Homes, said:

“Our job is to provide the best possible quality housing to our residents and we believe this move in challenging financial times would be good news all round.”

Lucy Ivimy, cabinet member for housing on Hammersmith and Fulham Council, said:

“Bringing Hammersmith and Fulham Homes back in-house into the Council means that we can focus the resources we have on delivering an even better service to tenants and leaseholders rather than wasting that money on unnecessary costs.”

The consultation will run throughout August and September and the ALMO board will make a final recommendation to the council in November 2010.

The ALMOs in Slough and Ealing are in the same reversionary situation too…

David Jones – Editor-in-Chief of CDM2007.org comments:

“ALMOs were originally formed to take over the management control of the social housing function from local authorities reluctant to let housing go outside council direct control when they decided to retain their own social housing portfolios in-house, and not transfer this to a housing association etc.   The government initiative that was the driver for the move to ‘force’ councils to set up their ALMOs was the Decent Homes Standard … and this was encouraged by government financial incentives”

“Previous in-house teams operating in councils reluctant to let housing go outside council direct control were simply transferred under TUPE rules to the ALMOs set up under previous government thinking.   The funding for Decent Homes Standard is now largely depleted … so, clearly, new financial horizons need new thinking …”

“The coalition government’s changes where LEPs will soon be taking over from the RDAs … many new-build social homes needed … the Retrofit for the Future programme to meet the Carbon Reduction targets  … and more … will now shape the future for the construction industry … “

“As the ALMOs dissolve back into their respective Councils to form new in-house professional construction procurement teams again … new construction risk profiles will inevitably be created; new organisational policies and protocols will need to be put in place; new management structures will be created; … organisational competence? … individual competence? … training needs? … CDM compliance? … who will check all of this and more?”

“With financial and business matters in any organisation it is essential to know the state of affairs through robust auditing.   Health and safety and CDM is no different.   I would urge all Councils to undertake a robust CDM Audit to know their exposure to risk from the new procurement processes they will need to put in place to meet the future.   Competent organisations employing competent persons using safe systems save lives!”

Ed.